Operation Wack-A-Mole

Baghdad - Insurgents murdered at least 15 Iraqis on Thursday as US military intelligence warned that militias are re-infiltrating previously cleared neighbourhoods while local police turn a blind eye.

. . .Fighting raged on as a coalition intelligence official told reporters that illegal armed groups were returning to Baghdad areas once deemed to have been secured by a massive joint US and Iraqi security operation.

Worse, he said there was evidence that the Iraqi police units left behind after military forces move through the areas were collaborating with death squads, whose victims' corpses lie scattered through Baghdad every morning.